Reimagining Empire: Aabhas Maldahiyar's Babur: The Quest for Hindustan Redefines a Controversial Legacy

Author and historian Aabhas Maldahiyar returns with Babur: The Quest for Hindustan (Penguin India), a gripping sequel to the critically acclaimed and widely read Babur: The Chessboard King.

- AABHAS MALDAHIYAR

Author and historian Aabhas Maldahiyar returns with Babur: The Quest for Hindustan (Penguin India), a gripping sequel to the critically acclaimed and widely read Babur: The Chessboard King. Maldahiyar's ambitious attempt to reinterpret the history and legacy of the Mughal Empire is carried on in this second volume of the Timurid Gurkaniyan series. The book provides a rich, complex portrait of Babur—the man, the warrior, the poet, and the exile—in addition to a historical account, drawing heavily from the Baburnamas original Persian text.

What sets Babur: The Quest for Hindustan apart from conventional histories is its insistence on seeing Babur not as a static emperor perched atop a throne, but as a conflicted soul grappling with identity, purpose, and displacement. Maldahiyar captures this internal conflict masterfully, portraying Babur as a man torn between the harsh realities of conquest and a longing for home, culture, and meaning. The book presents Babur's search for belonging in the alien yet alluring land of Hindustan, where he would eventually lay the foundations of an empire that reshaped South Asian history.